NIT not to be shifted out of Srinagar: Javadekar

The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar has assured the Uttarakhand Government that the campus of National Institute of Technology (NIT) would not be shifted out of Srinagar. A new temporary campus would, however, be set up on the land of ITI and Silk Board.

NIT Srinagar and other issues featured during the meeting held between the Union HRD Minister and the Chief Minister Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat in New Delhi on Friday.

On the occasion, the high- power committee on NIT, Srinagar submitted its report to the Union HRD Minister. It was agreed upon that the campus of NIT Srinagar would not be changed but a new temporary campus on the land of ITI and Silk Board would come up.

The Union Minister is said to have told the CM that after giving relief to more than 16000 special Basic Teacher Certificate (BTC) qualified, the Union Government has started the process of providing relief to the remaining teachers. He further said that the pending budget under universal Right to Education (RTE) would be provided to the State soon.

On this occasion, the Minister of State for Higher Education, Uttarakhand Dhan Singh Rawat was also present.

Notably, the student protest had erupted on October 3 last when two girl students had been knocked down by a speeding car on the National Highway.

Demanding shifting of the campus outside Srinagar, the students had taken the drastic action of leaving the institute en masse on October 22, 2018. Responding to the demands of the students, the Union human resource development Ministry (HRD) had set up a transit campus for the students in NIT Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Set up in the year 2010 in Srinagar in Garhwal, the NIT has been functioning from a temporary campus. The administrative block and the labs are situated in the old ITI campus while the students go to the Poly-technique college campus for classes.

The high-power committee set up by Uttarakhand Government on NIT Srinagar has severely indicted the NIT administration for trying to shift the proposed campus out of Srinagar. In its report submitted to the Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday, the high-power committee mentions that 300 acres of land in village Sumari near Srinagar was transferred to NIT Uttarakhand by the State Government.

The report castigates the NIT Srinagar administration for having intentions of not getting a permanent campus established and contriving to have the campus transferred out from Sumari to some other location, citing a baseless and unscientific report.

The report also charges the board of governance (BOG) of NIT with sitting over a plan approved in a meeting held under the chairmanship of the additional secretary, technical education, human resource development ministry, in September 2015 regarding master plan and design of construction of campus. The report mentions that on May 29, 2018, at a meeting held in the presence of additional secretary, Union HRD ministry, it was decided that a geo-technical survey of the allotted land should be undertaken immediately.

However, the NIT administration has been sleeping on it, the report adds.